The chief and probably the earliest developed example of this combination of Oriental and Occidental thought is found in the writings of Philo Judaeus.[24] To him the powers of man seemed to be wholly unreliable and delusive, and only the special grace of God enables one to perceive any truth--"Αὐτος θεός ἀρχή καὶ πηγὴ τεχνῶν καὶ ἐπιστημῶν ἀνωμολόγηται." To approach God one must flee from one's self--"εἰ γὰρ ζητῆις θεὸν ἐξελθοῦσα απὸ σαυτῆς ἀναζήτει." Neither reason nor any other function of the soul can conduct us to God, nor can we attain to a conception of Him as the supreme cause of all by regarding the manifold perfections and powers of nature, for such a process can give us only shadows. It is only by a "superior faculty" which is a grace of God that one can attain some idea of the divine, but even by this means we arrive at only negative knowledge--we can know only what God is not.[25] Yet in spite of all this Philo uses quite an elaborate teleological argument drawn from the order in the world.[26] This inconsistency, which, as Erdmann remarks,[27] may be explained by the fact that Philo makes God only the orderer of the world, and, furthermore, interposes an intermediate being, the famous Philonian Logos, we have thought it worth while to mention in this place, as it forms a connecting link between the Greek philosophers and the Alexandrian Fathers, and foreshadows, in some degree, the direction in which their thought was to be led. FOOTNOTES: [2] D. L., I, 16; II, 6. [3] Ritter and Preller, 123. Translated by Burnet; _Early Greek Philosophy_, p. 283, 4. [4] _Metaphysics_, I, 4. [5] The "one god, the greatest among gods and men" of Xenophanes has led men to call him the first monotheist, but an examination of the fragments attributed to him will, I am sure, confirm the verdict of Burnet (_ut supra_, p. 123) that "what Xenophanes proclaimed as the 'greatest god' was nothing more nor less than what we call the material world." [6] Xenophon: _Memorabilia_, I, 4. [7] Cocker: _Christianity and Greek Philosophy_, p. 491. [8] "La dialectique et le système des idées conduisaient directement Platon à la démonstration de l'existence de Dieu; et son Dieu porte en quelque façon l'empreinte de cette origine, puisqu'il est à la fois l'unité absolue et l'intelligence parfaite." Jules Simon: _Etudes sur la Théodicée de Platon et d'Aristote_, p. 29. [9] _Banquet_, § 34. [10] Erdmann: _History of Philosophy_, § 77, 4. [11] E.g. Cocker: _Christianity and Greek Philosophy_, pp. 377, ff. [12] Zeller: _Philosophie der Griechen_, II, i, s. 926. [13] Plato "never raised the question of the personality of God." (Zeller; _Greek Philosophy_ (briefer edition) § 49.) "Sie" ("die Idee der Ideen") "ist natürlich keine gottliche Persönlichkeit." (Kahnis: _Verhältniss der Alten Philosophie zum Christenthum_, p. 54.) [14] _Metaphysics_, V, 1. [15] _Ibid._: x, 7. [16] _Metaphysics_, xi, 6.